Air hose connector device

ABSTRACT

A service station air machine air hose end-connector for outdoor winter operation having an internal hollow chamber for capturing and storing system-clogging ice particles is disclosed. The hollow storing chamber defines an empty section of the fitting&#39;s cylindrical ferrule further having an internal air stream screen which collects the blocked particles and stores them till thawed. The internal air stream screen defines a perforated tube in the connector airway which screens out undesirable system clogging ice particles and further serves as a water tight weir. A remote hose crimp insertion barb defines a short tube inserted flush into the hose and having an internal diameter larger than the air hose airway to allow particles formed in the hose to freely pass through the barb and into the ferrule there to captured and stored.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

None.

MICROFICHE APPENDIX

None.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Class 285/238/239/242

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

Of the literally millions of air hoses in use today, the overwhelming majority are employed indoors for mechanical air tools and are not susceptible to winter time freezing. No need exists nor thought given to protecting systems and hose connectors from freezing up. Indoor systems not withstanding, there are more than a hundred thousand automobile tire inflator machine systems located outdoors, primarily at gasoline service stations serving the driving community and used by customers year round, night or day, summer or winter. These outdoor systems are necessarily minimalist in nature and employ the same minimum effort air hose connector devices as the indoor systems. The system hoses frequently freeze up in winter making the systems inoperative. There is a question as to why some hoses freeze and others nearby in identical weather do not. After extensive cold-chamber study and testing by the applicant it was determined that the more active hoses froze and the lesser ones regardless of the weather did not. It requires frequent usage in very dry winter air for sufficient water vapor to be injected into the system to form ice particles large enough to create a problem. A hose used once a month will never freeze up, a hose used ten times a day is almost a freeze up certainty. It is then, that during winter when the outdoor temperature drops below freezing, atmospheric water vapor introduced into the filling hose in each compression cycle will condense on the walls of the airway along its length to liquid water and if cold enough to ice. As the ice builds up and as the hose is flexed during the tire inflation activity frequently goodly pieces of ice break off the walls and are carried or pushed by the high pressure air stream toward the outlet end of the hose. The ice particles if they meet any type of obstruction within the hose or attached filling gauge pile up and effectively block the airway until thawed. While the above is straight forward, no practical method or means has been found heretofore to prevent it in the twenty five or so years of outdoor air machine popularity. It develops that the internal configuration of the conventional minimum-effort hose end connector device is in fact the almost sole contributor to ice obstruction and improvement measures of the device are the focus of this invention. Examination of brochures and catalogs of the major connector manufactures displaying hundreds of connector designs by presumably the most skilled designers in the world finds no configuration comparable to the proposed geometry.

OBJECTIVE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION

The advantages of the invention to the location owner are better revenues from his coin-operated air machine and better customer service for customers who frequently need air in their tires in early morning to get to work. Not only a chilling disappointment for those in need to find a frozen hose but then to drive on risky under-inflated tires to the next machine only to sadly find it also frozen. While loathe to claim all, the improved connector as proposed can eliminate the very vast majority of these winter weather ice problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The essence of the invention, since it cannot prevent the formation of ice is to first minimize its influence and secondly to create a cavity within the connector device itself to capture and store the ice particles harmlessly until such time as they are melted by warmer weather and blown out as water.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: A cutaway of a conventional connector fitting device crimped onto an air hose showing the body of the connector, the barb insertion tube and the ferrule sleeve crimped securely onto the hose and a partial cut away of an inflator gauge screwed onto the connector.

FIG. 2: A cutaway of the proposed connector fitting device likewise crimped onto an air hose showing the hose reamed for a re-positioned enlarged insertion barb, enlarged ferrule sleeve, the perforated screening tube, and an enlarged exit port.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   Cylindrical metal body of conventional connector 1 -   Male threads 2 -   Wrench lands 3 -   Hose from compressor 4 -   Insertion barb inserted in hose 5 -   Ferrule compression sleeve crimped on hose 6 -   Tubular airway through connector 7 -   Air path exit to attached gauge 8 -   Cutaway of attached gauge with tiny gauge port B 9 -   Body of proposed connector 10 -   Proposed barb repositioned away from body 11 -   Hose end reamed for barb 12 -   Enlarged ferrule 13 -   Ice particle storage chamber 14 -   Perforated tube ice particle screen 15 -   Water weir 16 -   Enlarged exit airway 17

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The improvement of the conventional connector device for winter operation is to address the critical ice particle caused air flow obstructions inherent in the conventional device. The most consequential of the internal obstacles to ice particle migration and subsequent air flow blockage is the leading, inserted edge of the insertion barb 5 at point A. Virtual elimination of this obstruction is the first order of improvement. To do this, the first step is the physical separation from the conventional connector body 1 and relocation of the insertion barb. The insertion barb could be eliminated from the device entirely, but because there may be quite high pressure generated by an improperly pressure-regulated compressor, the internal barb is best retained as a safety measure to insure secure crimping of the ferrule sleeve onto the air hose but the barb modified to eliminate its previously mentioned supreme role as ice particle obstruction. To accomplish this end, the inside diameter of the separated insertion barb 11 is increased to be larger than the inside diameter of the attached air hose to insure it is not an obstruction to ice particle travel. While not entirely necessary the hose end 12 is best reamed out to accommodate the insertion of the now separate and larger diameter barb 11. The ferrule sleeve can now be crimped onto the attached air hose and internal barb in a conventional manner. Significantly the end of the air hose is stopped and fixedly attached, crimped, within the ferrule sleeve as mentioned above but the hose end is stopped at a distance from the connector body thus creating an empty void or chamber 14 for ice particle storage within the ferrule enclosure. To increase the capacity of the storage chamber to enable operation across extended periods of below-freezing winter weather an enlarged internal storage volume is created by increasing the length and/or diameter of the connector ferrule sleeve 13. Lastly to preclude air-borne ice particles re-entering the exit air stream and blocking tiny port B in the attached air gauge, the second most vulnerable congestion point, a perforated screening tube 15 is inserted into the exit port of the connector body and extended into the chamber thus screening the exit airway within the storage void. The small perforations of the tube screen out major particles of ice while allowing air to freely flow through the many other perforations. To preclude water from melted ice in the chamber entering the perforated tube and running down into the gauge device when the gauge/connector assembly is hanging from a hook in the vertical position, there to refreeze if the weather chills again before the gauge is used, a melted-water weir is created by not perforating the tube for a predetermined distance 16 from the connector body exit. The internal diameter of the exit airway 17 through the connector body is enlarged to further preclude blockage.

RAMIFICATIONS AND SCOPE OF THE INVENTION

While the above description of my preferred embodiment contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitation on the scope of the invention, but rather as an exemplification of the one preferred embodiment thereof. It is possible to reach somewhat similar results as my invention by creating a simple storage chamber by creating a gap between hose and connector end within the standard ferrule or reversibly, to simply increase the id of the hose and barb without the chamber, or to eliminate the barb entirely and cement the hose into a ferrule, or to ream out the hose and install a flush barb, or to outfit the ferrule with internal teeth like protrusions that grip the hose when crimped onto the hose even without a barb, or to use other screens or exclude a screening device entirely or to create a separate chamber immediately upstream of the connector. Many other variations of virtually every concept or component defined are possible, accordingly the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiment illustrated but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. 

1-10. (canceled) 11-17. (canceled) 18-24. (canceled)
 25. An air hose end-connector fitting for outdoor winter operation, the fitting comprising: a cylindrical body having a first and second end, said first end being threaded and said second end having an outer circumferential groove, said body having an internal bore extending from the first end to the second end; a cylindrical ferrule having a first end, second end, and middle section, the first end of the ferrule having a diameter substantially equal to the outer circumferential groove, the second end of the ferrule having a diameter larger than the diameter of the air hose to be attached, the middle section of the ferrule having a diameter substantially equal to or greater than the first end of the ferrule; said middle section having an internal ice particle screen wherein the middle section is capable of screening and storing undesirable ice particles entering the ferrule.
 26. A hose end-connector fitting as recited in claim 25 wherein the connector further having a cylindrical barb having an inside diameter substantially equal to or greater than the internal air way of the hose to be attached, the barb being located inside of the hose and the second end of the ferrule
 27. A hose end-connector fitting as recited in claim 25 wherein said ice screen comprises a tube having a first end and second end, the first end of the tube is inserted into the second end of the body, the second end of the tube having perforation holes to screen out undesirable ice particles of a particular size.
 28. A hose end-connector fitting as recited in claim 27 wherein said first end of the tube further being a water tight weir.
 29. A hose end-connector fitting as recited in claim 25 wherein said end-connector further comprising a hose having an internal air way, a portion of the hose is crimped in the second end of the ferrule. 